Books to Read Poster No 39

I've just checked back and it was in early June that I last  ticked off one of these. It's been a busy summer and there hasn't been much time for listening or reading I suppose, plus of course there have been some health issues along the way.

However I have just finished listening to another of the poster books on Audible. I am very happy indeed to report that this one came free as part of my membership because otherwise I would have been a bit annoyed at having paid for it.  

Here is the picture from the poster. It will be no help if you're trying to guess what the book is. 

What might be of more help is if I copy my Audible review here. I don't always review things on Audible but this time I did. 

Tedious Tale:Truly Terrible Narration

The book is written in the style of its time so the tedium comes in-built to a certain extent. There is no such excuse for the narration. Was the narrator as bored as he sounded, especially during those parts of the book supposedly told by Frankenstein, or had he swallowed a bottle of Mogadon? Editing should have picked up the words he didn't know how to pronounce. There were several, the worst being tumult which occurred several times. It's tyoomult, not tummelt. As for the voicing of the so called monster, I found the use of a generic Yorkshire accent for this offensive.

This is a trail blazing classic and I'm glad I've finally acquainted myself with it, but oh! how I wish I had just read it rather than put myself through the quite unpleasant experience of listening to it. 

It's true that I'm glad I've 'read it' and I wouldn't be averse to reading some commentary on it as it throws up all sorts of ethical questions about scientific discovery and the rights and responsibilities of scientists and engineers that are very pertinent today. I suspect it's also quite susceptible to a psychoanalytic analysis because you could argue there wasn't a monster, it was all just Victor. I quite like that idea. 

It is though a nasty story with an equally nasty protagonist, and by that I don't mean the 'monster'. Victor Frankenstein is a wheedling hubristic irresponsible cowardly self justifying horror. Your mileage, as they say, may vary.

Sorry it's been two book posts in a row. Something different next time.